Methods in Philosophy Flashcards
A method of analyzing a topic by formulating a series of questions designed to analyze its various aspects and examine and clarify a person’s views on it.
Socratic Method
It is neither a rhetoric (art of persuasion) nor a debate (maieutic or intellectual midwifery).
Socratic Method
The participant in the dialogue do not force-fit their own beliefs on others.
Socratic Method
It enables us to move from a state of not knowing to that of knowing.
Socratic Method
There are 3 steps here in arriving at the truth:
1.Give an initial definition of a thing or a concept.
2.Look for characteristics not captured in the initial definition.
3.Give a new definition.
Can be compared to a debate competition
Eristike
Is rather constructive
Dialektike
Formulated by “Rene Descartes”. He sought to understand certainty where he eliminated the ideas in his mind that can be doubted.
Methodic Doubt
Reducing complex ideas to their parts or individual constituents. It focuses on the properties of its parts.
Reductionist
Works under the assumption that all properties in a given system cannot be broken down by its parts alone, but rather the system as a whole entity decides how the individual parts behave. Here, something is more than the sum of its parts.
Holistic
Analytic Philosophy
- Respect/emphasis on natural sciences.
- Analysis > Synthesis; break down content into parts and examine such parts for clarification.
- The use of formal logic as a rational tool.
- More emphasis on precision then;
interconnections; analyze issues in bit-sized approaches as opposed to systematically. - A preference for clear concise language, if not outright common sense in some instances.
- Related to empiricism.
Speculative Philosophy
1.Respect/emphasis on
Metaphysics/
2. Synthesis > Analysis; speculative thinkers are very sympathetic to coherence theories, theories are not mutually exclusive.
3. A certain “faith” in reason and a priori method.
4. More emphasis on interconnection;
tends to “overflow”.
5. May modify certain terminologies or add terminologies.
6. Related to idealism.
